The present invention relates in general to call management in Internet Protocol (IP) telephony, and, more specifically, to automatically switching between various call profiles according to the presence or absence of a user at a certain location.
Telephony services that had been circuit based (e.g., over the Public Switched Telephone Network, or PSTN) are increasingly being transported over packet-based IP networks or combinations of packet-based and circuit-based networks. Benefits of IP telephony include increased efficiency of transport resources, lower system deployment and operation costs, easier system modifications (e.g., added or modified phone numbers), and opportunities for providing improved user features. Enterprises (e.g., businesses, educational institutions, and governmental organizations) can obtain IP telephony network services using private, internally operated network infrastructure (e.g., an IP PBX solution) or can outsource the IP telephony infrastructure to an outside provider (e.g., an IP Centrex solution).
In IP Centrex or IP PBX systems, call management is typically performed using one or more servers (e.g., an IP telephony application server) for controlling call set up, routing, tear down, and other signaling functions. Each user of the system who is capable of receiving a call has at least one corresponding profile stored in the server so that an incoming call to the user may be properly directed within the packet network. Certain aspects of a profile may be customizable by the user so that the destination of incoming calls can be modified. For example, the user has been able to access a web portal on the IP application server using a web browser to modify how various incoming calls are directed. A fixed telephone installation on the enterprise network could be specified or calls could be directed (or redirected when there is a no answer or a busy condition) to an alternate destination such as a specific telephone number or a voice mail server to allow the calling party to record a message. A user profile can also specify special handling of calls from certain calling parties (e.g., family members or co-workers) which may be determined using automatic number identification or caller ID functions as known in the art, whereby these calls may be forwarded to a mobile telephone number while other callers are directed to voice mail, for example.
A telephone service user typically has a primary station where they maintain a fixed telephone instrument that is used during their times of normal availability for telephone calls. In a work setting, for example, this primary station may be a desk in an individual or shared office or may be a rotating workstation in certain workplaces such as a hospital ward. When the user is at their primary station then they typically desire that all their calls be routed to a fixed telephone outlet at the station, such as a desk phone. When they are away from the primary station then they may desire to have at least some calls forwarded to a mobile (e.g., cellular or PCS) wireless phone. Changes to a user's profile to accomplish the desired call direction have required manual intervention by the user at the time that they arrive at or depart from the primary workstation. Many users, however, find the required manual intervention to be impractical. Even if profile changes could be set up to occur at specified times of day or days of the week, the profile changes would not accurately reflect the random comings and goings of the user within close proximity of the primary station (e.g., an office worker leaving their office to attend a meeting elsewhere in the building or a doctor leaving their office or a treatment area in a hospital to visit a laboratory or the office of another doctor).